It is just possible that 2009 will go down as the most amazing year in the history of Formula One. On the track we have seen a new team rise from the ashes of Honda and wipe out all opposition in the first third of the season. Off the track we’ve had… well, where do you want start?
In what is becoming something of a Groundhog Day occurrence, the pre-season was dominated by discussions of breakaways as the teams rebelled over planned cuts in operating costs.
Then most of the global auto industry was rushed into financial intensive care, raising doubts over which manufacturers could afford to continue in F1. And, as the season progressed, the now familiar pattern of sensation, allegation and recrimination was shattered by the biggest scandal of them all. Renault’s axed Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet Jnr admitted that he had deliberately crashed into a wall during the 2009 floodlit Grand Prix in Singapore under team orders.
As ever, the man at the centre of this maelstrom was Bernie Ecclestone, one of the few people on earth whose name rarely appears in print without the prefix Supremo, Svengali or Ring Master. He is the man who created Formula One and has made a lot, an awful lot, of money in the process.
The day after the World Council of the FIA - motor sport’s world governing body - ruled on the Renault incident, Ecclestone was at his London headquarters preparing to leave for the Singapore Grand Prix. He reflected on those recent events and the damage which an incident of cheating, which risked the life of not only Piquet but other drivers, might have done to F1.
“Well we got a lot of press didn’t we?” he says, probably tongue in cheek. “I am on the world council so it’s difficult for me to talk about the ruling but you have to accept that Flavio was the manager who ran the team. So as far as the teams are concerned, the general opinion is that there were three people involved in the conspiracy.
"The others in the team and the people at the Renault car company didn’t know what was going on.
“What happened to the Renault team was probably quite fair. Perhaps we were a little bit harsh in what we meted out to Flavio. He needed a bit of a slap perhaps because he is the team manager. He could have said - you can’t do that. The buck stopped with him and in fairness to him he acknowledges that,” says Ecclestone.
“There have been many difference incidents over the years which have been portrayed as the beginning of the end for Formula One. But I think the brand of Formula One is so strong that these sorts of things don’t hurt it.”
The doom-mongers were certainly out in force in late 2008 when, with the world economy in freefall and the motor industry hurting more than most, Honda announced that it was pulling the plug, sparking a furious race for a new owner to keep the UK-based team running. It’s a move which Ecclestone paints as being driven by opportunism rather than real financial necessity.
“In reality the reason Honda stopped was nothing to do with the money because by then everyone had agreed they were all spending too much and that it was possible to spend a bit less and get the same (results/performance),” he says.
“They left because they were 9th in the Constructors Championship again and because they had heard stories every year that they were going to do better. They were looking for an excuse to go but the excuse they brought up wasn’t really valid.”
And while Honda departed, new teams are set to join the series and F1 is looking buoyant once more. In fact, the black clouds of recession may well have played into Ecclestone’s hands, helping corale militant teams by forcing them to reduce costs and re-consider any future they might have outside the Formula One ring.
“I think we have adjusted (to difficult economic times) in the right way,” Ecclestone says. “We have conquered the necessity to spend a lot of money to be competitive. The best thing to come out of the recession for us was that it was a wake-up call for the teams. We didn’t need to make an agreement to say you couldn’t spend… it has happened on its own, which is what I predicted.
“Dealing with the teams can be like dealing with Trades Unions, he says. “I suppose you can’t blame the people for using whatever leverage they can to get more of something they don’t need. Because the more money they get the more they waste.
“But in this case it wasn’t to do with money. They wanted to see Max changed. That’s why they wanted to get together and start their own series.”
And that, says Ecclestone is something which would “never, ever, ever, have worked. The Formula One brand is just so strong worldwide. You can’t just start-up something with a new name. It would never have happened.”
Elsewhere, F1 continues its expansion into new territories. New this year was Abu Dhabi and next year there will be a race in South Korea. Then, in 2011, there will be an Indian Grand Prix in 2011 and Ecclestone declares himself “happier than they are” at the emergence of the Force India team. “We also keep knocking on the door in Russia,” says Ecclestone who has no worries over the success of the inaugural race in Korea.
All in all, what could have turned out to be an annus horriblis for Ecclestone has worked out quite well. If nothing else, F1 is back on the pub/water cooler conversational agenda among those who are not die-hard petrol heads.
And Ecclestone agrees that it’s far more interesting to watch right now. “The good thing about it is that when you go to a race now and somebody asks who is going to win I’d have to say I haven’t a clue. I just don’t know,” he says . “Before, when Michael (Schumacher) was around we knew that if he was on pole he was probably going to win... Now we don’t know and that’s good, it’s what people want.”
For more from Bernie Eccleston, see the November issue of SportBusiness International.
